=435. The corn laws and their effects.=—Previous to the great changes which turned England into a manufacturing country, the agricultural interests which controlled Parliament had assured themselves a good measure of protection in framing the tariff laws. The importation of grain was prevented by high duties; and the export was favored by bounties when the supply was relatively plentiful and the price fell below about $1.50 a bushel. Export became more and more rare as the home demand for foodstuffs grew with the increase in the industrial population; and toward the close of the eighteenth century it became ever a more serious question whether England could produce at home sufficient food for her growing people. An attempt was made to arrange the laws so as to keep the price of wheat steady at about 48s. a quarter ($1.50 a bushel), but the laws did not succeed in preventing violent fluctuations in the price. At the close of the great wars, in 1815, English agriculturists demanded a continuance of the protection which the stoppage of commerce had afforded them and the import of foreign wheat was prohibited so long as the price at home did not rise above 80s. (about $2.50 a bushel, or about $.30 for the quartern loaf of bread). Landlords got high rents as a result, but farmers who leased their land suffered when prices fell to a reasonable level, and consumers were forced to pay extortionate prices for a prime necessity. Hundreds of thousands of the working classes were brought to the verge of starvation in 1817 by the price of wheat rising to 112s. (about $3.50 a bushel).